Red Lion Hotels Corporation is a US hospitality corporation that primarily engages in the franchising, management and ownership of upscale, midscale and economy hotels. The company also operates an entertainment and event ticket distribution division, TicketsWest.
History
Establishment and diversification
The company originated as a property management and commercial development company when it was founded in Spokane, Washington in 1937 under the name Goodale & Barbieri Company. In 1976, Goodale & Barbieri acquired the River Inn in Spokane, launching the company into the hotel business. The Cavanaughs brand name was later created in 1980 for its hotel operations. By 1987, the company established a computerized event ticketing company, G&B Select A Seat, which is now known as TicketsWest.
1990s–2000s: IPO, acquisitions, and rebranding
Preparing for an Initial Public Offering, Goodale & Barbieri Company adopted its hotel brand into its corporate identity in 1997, changing its name to Cavanaughs Hospitality Corporation. The IPO was completed in April 1998, and Cavanaughs began trading under the ticker CVH. By the end of 1999, Cavanaughs announced it would acquire its regional rival, Seattle-based WestCoast Hotels, Inc. with transaction closing on January 7, 2000. On March 1, 2000, the combined company began trading under the new ticker, WEH. Recognizing the broader geographic reach of the WestCoast name, Cavanaughs also changed its name to WestCoast Hospitality Corporation with the launch of its new stock ticker and announced plans to rebrand its hotels into the WestCoast name.
Red Lion Hotels is a full-service, midscale hotel brand owned by Red Lion Hotels Corporation.
Red Lion competes in the moderate-priced, full-service segment of the lodging industry, along with Holiday Inn, Ramada, and Quality Inn. Its complementary brand, Red Lion Inn & Suites competes in the moderate-priced limited-service segment of the lodging industry, along with Holiday Inn Express, Fairfield Inn, and Hampton Inn. They have 53 hotels in their system with 12,344 total rooms, and 712,687 square feet of meeting space.
History
Business partners Tod McClaskey and Ed Pietz purchased the 89-room Thunderbird Motor Inn in Portland, Oregon in 1959, the first property in what was initially called Thunderbird-Red Lion Inns. In 1984 McClaskey and Pietz sold the chain—which, at the time, had 57 properties—to Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co. for a reported $600 million.
The brand's ownership has changed several times throughout its history. In 1996 the chain was acquired by Doubletree which rebranded most of the properties as Doubletree Hotels. At the time Doubletree merged with Promus Hotel Corporation in 1999, only 19 hotels retained the Red Lion name.